Realising revenue potential with Voice over LTE

What is VoLTE?

VoLTE stands for voice over Long Term Evolution. Utilising IMS technology, it is a digital packet voice service that is delivered over IP via an LTE access network.

Voice calls over LTE are recognised as the industry-agreed progression of voice services across mobile networks, deploying LTE radio access technology.

Who is VoLTE valuable for?

Operators;

OEMs;

Network vendors;

Partners; and

Consumers.

What are the benefits of VoLTE?

The implementation of VoLTE offers many benefits, both in terms of cost and operation. VoLTE:

Provides a more efficient use of spectrum than traditional voice;

Meets the rising demand for richer, more reliable services;

Eliminates the need to have voice on one network and data on another;

Unlocks new revenue potential, utilising IMS as the common service platform;

Can be deployed in parallel with video calls over LTE and RCS multimedia services, including video share, multimedia messaging, chat and file transfer;

Ensures that video services are fully interoperable across the operator community, just as voice services are, as demand for video calls grows;

Increases handset battery life by 40 per cent (compared with VoIP);

Delivers an unusually clear calling experience; and

Provides rapid call establishment time.

What is the GSMA doing to help in relation to VoLTE?

Our goal is to achieve a consistent, industry-wide approach to delivering services for LTE. They will embody the following principles:

Promote scale. For VoLTE/video calls over LTE implementation to work, it’s vital it’s based on a single technology and not undermined by fragmentation or diversity. It must work throughout a community of 6 billion+ connections (and growing) and across all networks and devices.

Reduce complexity. A common implementation, adhered to by all, will let messages and media be delivered in the best way. This provides consumers with the best quality experience. However, lack of common deployments between networks can detract from the overall quality of the voice/messaging service (e.g. end-to-end HD voice).

Enable interconnect and roaming. Seamless roaming can be optimised in the all-IP world. That is if all parties adhere to a single, common implementation of interfaces between every device and network.

These three principles will underpin the ways in which voice, SMS and RCS will work in the future. They will define the interfaces for end-to-end calling structures, which facilitate interconnect and roaming.

Discover more about voice over LTE

“With the support of the GSMA and the Ministry of Science, ICT and future planning, The Republic of Korea was recognised as not only the first country to have launched interconnected VoLTE but also the first country to have migrated its subscriber base to be fully VoLTE interconnected between three operators.”